The GENES Blog (GEnealogy News and EventS): Top stories concerning ancestral research in Britain, Ireland, and their diasporas, from Irish born Scottish based professional family historian, author and tutor Chris Paton. Feel free to quote from this blog, but please credit The GENES Blog if you do so. To contact me please email chrismpaton @ outlook.com.

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Wednesday, 31 October 2012

The Scottish Genealogy Society (www.scotsgenealogy.com) has an update for its forthcoming programme of classes:

Programme of Classes

The Society has put together a programme of family history classes which go beyond the usual birth, marriage and death information. The schedule has now been updated (see below). As already mentioned, the classes will be held mostly on a monthly basis at our Family History Centre at 15 Victoria Terrace and will cost £10 each.

The schedule is as follows-all dates are Saturdays from 10am-12pm:

2012

3 November Maritime: John Stevenson, our resident expert on all things maritime, can help if you have a query on anything regarding the Royal or Merchant Navy. This will be in the form of a workshop, so come along with your questions and research so far.

1 December Emigrants: With so many ancestors emigrating to the far flung corners of the British Commonwealth and beyond, this is an important part of Scottish family history. Ken Nisbet can help you find the best sources of information to help you trace their whereabouts.

2013:

12 January Census: The censuses are an invaluable source of information - giving details such as places of birth, occupations, etc. Ken Nisbet can show how they can be best used by family historians.

2 February Scottish Handwriting: Just when you think it's great because you have researched your family back into the 18th Century, you suddenly find the writing on the OPRs changes and you can't read it! Kirsty Stewart, who was involved in setting up the Scottish Handwriting website, will give a talk on how to decipher it.

16 February Beginners: This class is just what it says -for beginners.
The lecturer will be Ken Nisbet who has many years of experience in researching family history.

2 March Taxation Records: Joy Dodd will give a talk on how these records can help with your research.

6 April Military Records: Our resident expert on all things military - Ken Nisbet - will give a talk about military records - where to find them, how to interpret them, etc.

4 May Land Records: Did your ancestors own property? Then this class can help you find out how to source such information. The speaker for this class will be Gregory Lauder-Frost.

Irish Origins, part of Origins.net, has announced a new complete run of Thom's Irish Almanac and Official Directory for Dublin on its site from 1844-1870, with a considerable amount of new directory and almanac material to be uploaded in the near future for the city, covering the period from 1636-1900. In total there will be 176 editions online when the collection is complete. This will includes a substantial amount of editions of The Gentleman and Citizen's Almanack (Watson's) and The English Registry and Wilson's Dublin Directory from 1729-1844.

Another one from the Irish Times, this time on the Certificate of Irish Heritage (www.heritagecertificate.com). Jennifer O' Connell's article is at www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2012/1031/1224325931740.html and looks at what she considers to be an embarrassment, with only 1042 people applying for a certificate in its first year - or 0.00167 per cent of Ireland's 60 million diaspora. I can only agree, and I had to laugh at the caption under the photo of a certificate with the piece: "This hereby certifies that the bearer is not British" :)

The writer takes to the theme about there being nothing special about "being Irish", and cites the failure of the certificate as evidence that no-one around the world is interested - however, she also applies this to the prospects for The Gathering event next year (www.thegatheringireland.com). On that I would perhaps part ways with her analysis. A worthless bit of paper simply designed to cynically raise money by exploiting a diaspora is not quite the same thing as organising a national hooley to re-establish connections with that diaspora. So on the Certificate of Irish Heritage, I've always had my thumbs down on that one - but on The Gathering, I'm going to wish that one the best of luck!

Today is Hallowe'en, and in my neck of the woods back in Ulster we used to sing "Hallowe'en is coming and the goose is getting fat" as we went rhyming as kids. Ever since I've lived in Britain I've constantly been told it's a Christmas song - but that's clearly mad, as you don't sing Hallowe'en songs at Christmas...! lol :) (I'm with you on this one Norn Iron!)

Cue the tenuous link to Christmas...!

If you are looking for a genealogy book for a relative as a Christmas present, I have a few in print which you should still hopefully be able to get in time for Christmas! here's a list, and details on where to get them:

For family history research, the following are available in the UK:

Researching Scottish Family History (Family History Partnership)www.familyhistorypartnership.com £7.95
Also on sale at the ScotlandsPeople Centre - this book is a beginner's guide, packed with tips and sources, and I think probably the most inexpensive book on the market for the areas it coversTracing Your Family History on the Internet (Pen and Sword)
www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/?product_id=2974 £12.99
The top websites and areas to go for family history resources available online - arranged thematically, and then country by country, and county by county, for the United Kingdom(A follow up book, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet, will hopefully be released at Who Do You Think You Are Live 2013)

NB: The above two go beyond the basics in the respective areas of church and land records - the websites have detailed descriptions of the contents. If on interest, best to order quick to beat the postal rush!

The Mount Stewart Murder: A Re-Examination of the UK's Oldest Unsolved Murder Case (The History Press)www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Mount-Stewart-Murder.aspx £13.49 paperback
Also available in ebook formats via Amazon Kindle and iTunes. The true story of the unsolved murder of my three times great grandmother in Perthshire, 1866, the longest unsolved cold case still on the books of the UK's modern police forces.

Worcestershire Marriage Records
We have added over 44,000 individuals to our marriage records for Worcestershire. This brings our total to over 94,000 individuals, with years ranging from 1501-1961.

Death Transcripts 1970-2005
On Friday, we will be releasing over 8 million records to our Death Transcripts - this brings the total to over 21 million records!
These transcripts can be used with a tool that lets you search across all our Birth, Marriage and Death transcripts, with built in SmartSearch technology, automatically showing the partner's full name where available, and enabling you to find potential parents from a birth, potential children to a marriage and potential birth records from a death record. (NB: These are indexes for the records which then need to be ordered from the GRO - Chris)

Malvern Parish Record Transcripts
We have added over 25,000 individuals to our Parish Record Transcripts for Worcestershire in partnership with Malvern Family History Society, expanding our coverage and bringing the total to over 1 million records. With years ranging from 1544-1891.

Just a quick plug for my next Pharos hosted Scottish course, which will start this Friday 2nd November - the first lesson will go out then, though the first online chat session will be a week or so after.

Scottish Research Online, my previous Pharos course, finished last night, and looked very much at how to get the best from certain key websites that are used to get you on your way - ScotlandsPeople, Ancestry, FindmyPast etc. It's a sort of introduction to Scottish research, but with added "oomph", giving many tips that will make you a better researcher along the way. (Although ended, it will be back twice next year! See www.pharostutors.com)

The follow up course, Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the Old Parish Registers is where the fun really, really begins - it's for the next stage of your research and comes with added "oomph", with history, social context, Scottish law and more. Scottish poor law, burgh administration records, the system of Scottish feudalism that affected land transactions and property inheritance, and much more - this short course really shows why Scottish research is in so many ways completely different to the rest of the UK and the British Isles. If you are doing a one-name study, researching your own tree, even researching someone else's tree, this course will significantly develop your skills as a researcher and your understanding of Scottish genealogical areas for study.

There's still some availability on the next course, however, which costs £45.99, and which will run over 5 weeks - letting you finish in plenty of time to get your Christmas shopping and to do the Christmas bashes! Although it is preferred that you have done the first course, it is still possible to sign up to the second course not having done so, on the assumption you are up to speed with the issues covered in the initial course (you can see what was covered on the Pharos website). A lesson is sent out at the start of each week, we have a weekly online chat for an hour to discuss issues raised, and a dedicated discussion forum to further thrash out issues and concepts - and you'll get me to offer occasional bits of advice into your own ancestral problems along the way!

Tuesday, 30 October 2012

Linkinhorne History and Community Archive has been granted £9400 by the Heritage Lottery Fund to locate the whereabouts of the Manor of Rillaton, close to the village of Rilla Mill in East Cornwall. The funds will help volunteers to visit the National Archives at Kew and the Duchy of Cornwall Archive in London for further research.

Back in January I blogged some time back about the possible implications of Scottish independence on genealogists, including some thoughts on TNA and its role in terms of records involving Scotland, comparing it to similar events in the past with Ireland and Australia. The post is on my Walking in Eternity blog at http://walkingineternity.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/scottish-independence.html, which may be of interest.

I've been asked to flag up an online course from Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd (www.pharostutors.com) which may be of interest, and which still has some availability. It is World War Research, taught by military historian Simon Fowler, which commences on November 6th. Simon knows his stuff - one of his books on naval ancestry has been on my desk for the last three weeks, as I seem to have had a spate of naval enquiries recently! This is a great introduction to the whole genre of military research for the two wars - here's the blurb from the site:

World War Research

Almost everybody has ancestors and family who fought in the two world wars. This three-week course will help you find out about their service whether they spent their time in a cookhouse at Catterick or, in Winston Churchill’s words” at the sharp end”.

We look at online resources available from The National Archives, the commercial data providers, and those maintained by enthusiasts. Offline, we examine original records at Kew and consider resources available at the Imperial War Museum and other military museums across Britain, as well as how best to use these records. Women’s war service records are included and records for men from the Dominions who came to the aid of the Mother Country during both world wars. This course will answer your questions about: service records, where to find them and how to interpret them; medal records, including how to discover more about why they were awarded; casualty records, including researching how and why a man lost his life and also operational records, which give you a good idea of a man’s career in the services.

Two of the three weeks will be spent looking at the major resources for the First World War and suggesting alternatives where there are gaps in the records. The last lesson will concentrate on the Second World War, where there are many records which are rarely used by family historians. For both conflicts research strategies will be offered, together with tips to speed your research along.

Instructor: Simon Fowler

WWI – The basics: Service records, Medal cards, Resources online, The Fallen
WWI – Advanced: War diaries, RAF, Royal Navy, Women, Commonwealth
WWII – How to use the records: Service records, Medals, Operational records, the Home Front
Each lesson includes exercises and activities; a minimum of 1 one-hour chat session per week. See How the Courses Work.

Dickens: Irish Friends and Family Ties Exhibition
The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland invites you to join us in celebrating the 200th birthday of one of the greatest novelists in the English language, Charles Dickens
Mon-Fri at PRONI

One of the things about blogging is that you never quite know who might be reading your posts!

Following my story yesterday on the appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner that ruled against Glasgow City Council's handling of a Freedom of Information request by a gentleman to obtain details of people buried within lairs at the Eastern Necropolis in Glasgow (see http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/glasgow-city-council-loses-foi-appeal.html), I have had an email this morning from none other than the Scottish Information Commissioner's office, offering more information.

Sarah Hutchison, Head of Policy and Information, has kindly been in touch to confirm that Glasgow City Council did not in fact appeal the decision and complied with it in May of this year. She has also offered the following advice on Freedom of Information requests in Scotland:

If you or any of your readers would like more information about your rights to access information from Scottish public authorities, there’s a lot of useful information on our website at the following link: www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights. We also provide an enquiries service Monday to Friday, 9.00 – 5.00, Tel 01334 464610 or email enquiries@itspublicknowledge.info

As mentioned yesterday, the ruling may act to some extent as a precedent, but each request will be decided on its own merit. But God loves a trier and all that - and nothing ventured, nothing gained!

(A huge thanks to Sarah)

UPDATE: I've had an email from another reader to say that he has been advised by the Mitchell Library that Glasgow City Council's Cemeteries and Crematorium department's records for the Eastern Necropolis are at the Mitchell, currently being digitised. Once done, as announced they will be made available to the public in due course - my understanding is on ScotlandsPeople, and it won't just be the Eastern Necropolis! However, it is also my understanding that any FOI request made prior to such an arrangement being put in place must still be complied with by the council as a statutory obligation until such an arrangement is published, though I am open to correction on that. So even if it might be awkward for a body to do so, and may even take a bit longer than normal, there should still be no cost if applied for prior to this, and if the FOI request cannot be rejected.

I had an experience with FOI legislation on that front a few years back with PRONI in Belfast concerning the 1939 National ID Register for Northern Ireland. Using the procedure I secured the details of my grandparents in Belfast, but it took a while longer than normal as the records were not easily accessible, and PRONI had no publication scheme in place - it was all perfectly well negotiated along the way etc though! (PRONI could not have been more helpful if it tried!)

I have also had another experience with FOI legislation in the past with the NHSIC in England, just prior to this (and which actually inspired the PRONI application). When Guy Etchells publicised a couple of years ago that he had secured a judgement from the English Info Commissioner's Office on the 1939 National ID Register, he publicly advised that the NHSIC, which held the information, was going to put into place a publication scheme that would undoubtedly charge once up and running. Until then, they were still obliged to provide the info for free under FOI obligations if applied for. I did just that and managed to get a copy of my grandfather's cousins details from St Albans from the register at no cost. If I had waited another month it would have cost £42, as they then implemented a formal procedure to do so, but it cost me nothing more than a few minutes of time to apply using the FOI process.

So, not necessarily advocating you do so - these records will be going online in due course, and at a damned site cheaper I would imagine than £62! - but at least a bit of food for thought which may be of interest concerning other record types from other bodies that may not be on the point of being released and not covered by a formal publication scheme.

I've just read a story on Linda Elliott's Mad About Genealogy blog concerning a free offer from Cassini Historical Maps - if you pay postage, and live in the UK, you can claim a free large format map covering part of England, Wales or the Isle of Man (choose from one of 3 series).

UPDATE: I've just successfully ordered a map of the Bootle area near Liverpool from the 1920s - once an order is complete you will be offered the chance to purchase from a further range of downloadable maps at a 50% discount at www.ancestry-maps.com.

Monday, 29 October 2012

A genealogy-based workshop entitled Roots Tourism: Potential and Opportunities is to be held in the Drummond Hotel, Ballykelly, on Thursday 8th November 2012 from 6.00-9.00pm. The speakers will include William Roulston of the Ulster Historical Foundation, Dr Paddy Fitzgerald of the Mellon Centre for Migration Studies, and Robert Forrest, Forrest Research Services.

The tour costs £830, but does seem to pack in a lot, with visits to PRONI, the Tower Museum in Derry and the Ulster American Folk Park in Omagh amongst some of the highlights, as well as other tours across Ulster.

The festival programme for the second Previously... Scotland's History Festival has been published online at www.historyfest.co.uk/events/ with various talks and events taking place from November 13th-30th 2012.

Amongst the highlights:

Neil Oliver goes behind their bloodthirsty reputation to find the truth about the Vikings (21 Nov)

The Big Shiny Debates return - this time in a new venue (14,21,28 Nov)

I've received the following from Sheila Duffy of the Glasgow and West of Scotland Family History Society (www.gwsfhs.org.uk), who has herself received it from one of the society's members (thanks to both). It concerns a decision made by the Scottish Information Commissioner in March 2012, and so events may have been superseded since then (perhaps via appeal).

In September 2010 John McKnight requested information from Glasgow City Council concerning two burials within Glasgow's Eastern Necropolis, essentially asking for details of who was buried in a lair there. The council stated that to perform a search would cost £62. The alternatives were to use search facilities at the Mitchell Library, Glasgow or at New Register House, Edinburgh. Unsatisfied, John McKnight resubmitted his application as a request under the Freedom of Information Scotland Act (FOISA), but was turned down by the Council. The request was unsuccessfully appealed and then sent to the Information Commissioner for adjudication.

In her decision, the Information Commissioner ruled that the council had failed to prove that it could block the FOISA request through various lines of argument. For example, New Register House does not have any burials information for the cemetery, and the Mitchell Library only holds records from 1847-1918, with the info only publicly available on 6 very poorly photographed and unindexed microfilms (I know how bad they are, I've tried to use them myself!). The application specified no time scale, so this was clearly inadequate also. The FOI exemptions quoted by the Council also did not apply in this case.

In the investigation there are some interesting revelations - the publication scheme created in 2004 that the Council was relying on expired in 2009 and was not replaced, and there is also news on the work being carried out by the National Records of Scotland with the Mitchell Library and Family Search (records have been digitised but yet to be indexed), so a worthwhile read. The final decision was as follows:

DECISIONThe Commissioner finds that Glasgow City Council (the Council) failed to comply with Part 1 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) in responding to the information request made by Mr McKnight. By incorrectly withholding the information in terms of sections 25(1) and 33(1)(b) of FOISA, the Council failed to comply with section 1(1) of FOISA.In order to comply with Part 1 of FOISA, the Commissioner therefore requires the Council to provide Mr McKnight with the information withheld, or to issue a notice to Mr McKnight in terms of sections 9 or 12 of FOISA by 15 May 2012 The Commissioner also finds that the Council failed to respond to Mr McKnight’s requirement for review within the timescale specified in section 21(1) of FOISA. The Commissioner does not require the Council to take any action in respect of this failure, in response to Mr McKnight’s application.

It has been suggested that it might be worth getting FOISA applications in on the basis of using this as a precedent, though do bear in mind if you choose to do so that the Information Commissioner does advise that "she will decide each case on an individual basis". I am also unclear as to whether this has been appealed by the council and if there has been any follow up.

A new heritage engineering museum and visitor attraction is being constructed by the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland at Whitehead, near Carrickfergus. The facility will be opened next year. The RPSI is the only operator of mainline steam trains in Ireland, with operations at both Whitehead and Dublin.

The Europeana 1914-1918 Family History Roadshow will be visiting Banbury Museum on November 3rd, following up on their recent successes in both Dublin and Preston in asking the public to bring along mementoes of their families' involvement in the Great War.

Sunday, 28 October 2012

The next meeting of the Scottish Genealogy Network will be at 2pm on November 3rd (next Saturday) at The George pub on Main Street, Largs.

If you are working professionally within the field of Scottish genealogy or an associated discipline (archivist, tutor, etc), feel free to come along! No admission costs, just a chance to meet once a month with others working in the industry to discuss latest developments, matters of common interest, and more.

A new blog will also be launched in the next couple of weeks or so for the group, with some further details. In the meantime, if you would like to come along, please drop me a note at christopherpaton @ tiscali.co.uk - hopefully see you there!

IARC has developed a customised half-day school series for those with a keen interest in genealogy. Our first series is entitled ‘An Introduction to Genealogy’ and will familiarise you all the basic sources needed to begin your ancestry research. It is for those at beginner's level.

Participants will be introduced family history sources available online. You will become familiar with concepts of online searching, source retrieval, and how to download material. During each session participants will also be given the opportunity to apply the skills learned using IARC’s computer facilities and subscriptions.

Sessions will be held once a month from 10am—12.30pm (dates below) and participants will be provided with annotated handouts and source guides for all topics covered.

Date Topic

1 November Introduction to Genealogy

6 December Using the 1901&1911 Census

7 February Using Griffiths Valuation

7 March The Tithe Applotment Books

4 April Your Guide to Landed Estates

2 May Your Guide to Irish Directories

Cost for the full programme of 6 sessions is €190.00.

For more information on our Genealogy Half-Day School Series, please contact Lorna.Moloney@irisharc.org or Deborah Clifford on 061 518355

Christmas Vouchers available for genealogy research gifts and genealogy basic workshops, contact Deborah.Clifford@irisharc.org

This Sunday BBC2 is giving us another chance to see its excellent Timewatch programme titled 'Codebreakers: Bletchley Park's Lost Heroes', giving overdue recognition to the brilliance of Bill Tutte and Tommy Flowers.

BBC description of the programme:

A documentary that reveals the secret story behind one of the greatest intellectual feats of World War II, a feat that gave birth to the digital age. In 1943, a 24-year-old maths student and a GPO engineer combined to hack into Hitler's personal super-code machine - not Enigma but an even tougher system, which he called his 'secrets writer'. Their break turned the Battle of Kursk, powered the D-day landings and orchestrated the end of the conflict in Europe. But it was also to be used during the Cold War - which meant both men's achievements were hushed up and never officially recognised.

The National Archives at Kew (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk) and the Federation of Family History Societies (www.ffhs.org.uk) have both announced that they are working jointly to transcribe and digitise the surviving conscription appeals records for Middlesex from the First World War held in the archive under MH47 - particularly useful for identifying conscientious objectors and their reasons for refusing to enlist. Most records were destroyed, but the Middlesex records were kept as an example of the record type. The full announcement is at http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/778.htm with further details on the project accessible at http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/conscription-appeals/.

It should be noted that additional records from this class have also survived for Scotland, and are kept at the National Records of Scotland (www.nrscotland.gov.uk), covering March 1916-October 1918 for the areas of Edinburgh, the Lothians and the Borders. These are held in Edinburgh under HH30 and in November 2008 were also being digitised and catalogued (as announced on my old Scottish GENES blog - see http://scottishancestry.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/first-world-war-scottish-military.html). I have not consulted them, but presume they are now available on the Virtual Volumes system there, though I am open to correction on that! Examples of the Scottish records types, which I assume will be similar to their English counterparts, can be found at www.nas.gov.uk/about/081103.asp - as with England, the rest of the records were destroyed by order of the Government in 1921.

UPDATE: The Scottish records quoted are searchable by keyword on the NRS catalogue at www.nas.gov.uk/onlinecatalogue, using HH30 as the Reference number. I've just noticed this also on the National Records of Scotland catalogue, for other surviving records held for areas of Britain:

The NAS also hold a register of cases heard by the Appeal Tribunal for Fife and Kinross giving the case number (1-1,242) the applicant's name, address and occupation, the local tribunal from which they were appealing, and the decision. This can be found at SC20/82/1.Other samples to have survived are the Middlesex Appeal Tribunal papers, held by The National Archives, Kew, and the Cardiganshire Appeal Tribunal papers, held by The National Library of Wales along with some chance survivals for other English counties which exist in certain local archives (e.g. Northamptonshire and Staffordshire).

Friday, 26 October 2012

The Surname Handbook: A Guide to Family Name Research in the 21st Century
Debbie Kennett
To be published 5th November 2012, £14.99 Paperback Original
978-0-7524-6862-4

A comprehensive and non-academic guide to discovering the origins and meanings of your surname

Discovering the changes and meaning of family names has always been of interest to family historians, however some of the definitions in surname dictionaries are often woefully inadequate or inaccessible for most people. The Surname Handbook looks the rectify this situation by providing an authoritative overview and useful guide on the subject, showing you how you can trace the history of your surname.

Taking you through the available resources online and offline, this new title from renowned genealogist Debbie Kennett allows you to understand the origins, meanings, evolutions, frequency and even the distribution of your surname. Utilising extensive internet sources in an easy to understand way, The Surnames Handbook shows you how the study of surnames is an easier proposition than ever before.

· The first non-academic and easy-to-use guide on surnames and genetics, showing you how to use the latest techniques.

· Discusses new developments in genetic genealogy that are advancing our knowledge and understanding of surnames.

· From the author of DNA & Social Networking.

Debbie Kennett, an editor and genealogist, is well known internationally as being at the cutting-edge of family history research. She organises two projects at Family Tree DNA (largest, US-based international testing group) and writes for many Family History magazines. She runs social media for Guild of One-Name Studies. Her first book on DNA and Social Media for family historians is published by THP.

1702Irish Pensioners of William III's Huguenot Regiments
From an original return in Miscellaneous Bundle 17 of the Civil List books preserved in the Public Record Office, William A. Shaw prepared this abstract, published in 1902. The paper itself was entitled 'Abstract of the Examination of the French Pensioners now on the Civil List of the Establishment of Ireland'. The return was in book form with very wide pages, each folio or spread divided into eight columns. In his abstract the first number is the folio number; (a) is the name and station of the pensioner, either by first commission, second, or incorporated by warrant; (b) allowance on the establishment per diem; (c) where served and how long; (d) what substance and in what it consists; (e) what family they maintain; (f) able or not to serve, and why not; (g) when disbanded. In some cases some of the columns are blank in the original, and are ignored in this abstract. The least informative entries give just surname and rate of pension. Christian names are rarely given. The return is divided into two sections - Galloway's Regiment, and Old Pensioners. The latter include some women, presumably widows. The return was forwarded to the Lords Justices of Ireland as an appendix to a report, dated 29 June 1702, from Charles Dering, Auditor-General of Ireland. In all there were 590 pensioners, 398 being in Galloway's Regiment. Dering provided an analysis of the return, and annotated with an asterisk those 'absent out of the kingdom, dead or otherwised provided for, whose names are in the abstract blank'; with a dagger those 'that have been placed on the establishment by his late Majesty's warrants & have not served'; and with a double dagger those 'that have pensions above their stations markt upon the abstract.'

1796-1798Board of Stamps Apprenticeship Books: Country Collectors Returns
Apprenticeship indentures and clerks' articles were subject to a 6d or 12d per pound stamp duty: the registers of the payments usually give the master's trade, address, and occupation, and the apprentice's name, as well as details of the date and length of the apprenticeship. There are central registers for collections of the stamp duty in London, as well as returns from collectors in the provinces. These collectors generally received duty just from their own county, but sometimes from further afield: in 1770 a change was made to describe many of the collectors according to their county rather than their town, but no change was made to the rule that they might stamp indentures from all the surrounding area, so these labels are deceptive. The indentures themselves can date from a year or two earlier than this return. There are returns from Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Brecknockshire, Bristol, Cambridgeshire, Cardiganshire, Cheshire, Cornwall, Cumberland, Denbighshire, Derbyshire, Devon, Dorset, Durham, Essex, Flintshire, Glamorganshire, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire, East and West Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Middlesex, Monmouthshire, Newcastle upon Tyne, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Scotland, Shropshire, Somerset, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex, Warwickshire, Westmorland, Wiltshire, Worcestershire, and Yorkshire, each of which has been indexed separately. IR 1/68

1833Subscribers to the Charity Schools of St Andrew Holborn
The Charity Schools of St Andrew, Holborn, were supported by private benefactions and subscriptions. This list of the subscribers, for 1833, gives their names and addresses and the amount of their subscription. Apart from a handful of life subscribers, who had paid a substantial lump sum, the payments were annual. The lefthand column shows the year at which their subscriptions commenced. Full names are given in some cases, but often christian names are omitted or indicated only by initials. The addresses include house numbers in many instances. Those who had served the office of Steward are indicated by a dagger.

1833Subscribers to the Last Lays of Thomas Dibdin
The list of patrons and subscribers to 'The Last Lays of the Last of the Three Dibdins: containing Fifty New Songs, Poems, &c. and One Hundred and Fifty Selections from his Published and Unpublished Productions. By T. Dibdin', published in 1833, gives surnames, and usually, but not always, initials: and indicates where more than one copy has been bought.

1840-1849Prisoners in Durham and Newcastle-upon-Tyne for Contempt of Court
The returns of prisoners imprisoned in Durham County Gaol and Newcastle-upon-Tyne Gaol for contempt of court give full name; when committed; by what authority; cause of committal; and date of discharge.

1917-1918Durham University Matriculations
The matriculation roll for Durham University is arranged college by college, unattached, home students and college of medicine. Full names are given, surname first. Michaelmas term 1917, Epiphany and Easter terms 1918.

1946Royal Corps of Signals
The Army List for October 1946 lists the 4300 officers of the Royal Corps of Signals by rank and seniority (i.e., the date from which their particular rank was to be reckoned). The names are given as surnames and initials. The many temporary commissions bestowing brevet or higher rank are listed in italics, with date, together with any decorations. In front of the surnames three abbreviations may occur: a bold R, meaning released to unemployment; a crossed-swords symbol for meritorious war service; and a pilcrow, for service without pay and allowances. There are separate sections for retired officers temporarily re-employed, the Territorial Army, and Regular Army Emergency Commissions (including African Colonial, Caribbean, Egypt and Palestine forces), Supplementary Reserve Category B.

The Guild of One-Name Studies and the Federation of Family History Societies will be jointly hosting a seminar entitled Why be a Society in the 21st Century? at Heritage Motor Centre, Banbury Road, Gaydon, Warwickshire CV35 0BJ on Saturday 1st December 2012, 10am.

The National Archives of Ireland (www.nationalarchives.ie) will be closed next Monday 29th October due to a bank holiday in the Republic of Ireland, and again on Thursday 1st November until 2pm (no reason given).

The National Archives at Kew (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk) has released some early Cold War material from MI5 for the period from 1945-1953, including diary material from Guy Liddell, its Deputy Director General at the time.

Thursday, 25 October 2012

The National Archives of Ireland (www.nationalarchives.ie) has added a series of documents relating to the recent Troubles in Ireland to the University of Ulster's Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN) project. The additions complement records previously supplied by PRONI in Belfast, and can be viewed on a new subsite at http://cain.ulster.ac.uk/nai/.

The Who Do You Think You Are Live 2013 event is due to take place from Friday February 22nd to Sunday February 24th - and I'm delighted to say that I will once again be giving two talks at the event! Here are the details:

I'm very much looking forward to speaking again - at the last event my Irish talk was completely sold out and given to a packed theatre of some 250 people, which felt like the genealogical equivalent of playing Wembley! :)

Tickets for the WDYTYA Live event will be going on sale from Wednesday November 7th 2012. For further details keep an eye on the website at www.whodoyouthinkyouarelive.com - the full talks programme should also be going onto the site imminently.

At the event I'll also be helping Bob and Liz Blatchford out at the Family and Local History Handbook stall, where the second Irish edition will be going on sale in the UK for the first time - and fingers crossed I may even have another wee book of my own ready in time and available at the event!

"The show centres on O’Dowd’s character Tom Chadwick who is going through a bit of a rough time after being fired from his job and breaking up with his girlfriend. After inheriting a box from a Great Aunt he had never met, he embarks on a journey to discover his roots."

The announcement also adds additional casting information, and suggests the eight part 'mockumentary' series is likely to air on BBC2.

I've just had a look, and whilst it does work, and does contain info you'll need, it could not look more bland if it tried - you can never have enough white space on a page really... It looks like one of those sites you go to when an old website has been taken down and the domain name has been put up for sale. The site is primarily of use for English and Welsh research, with Audrey highlighting several failings in her post concerning how it deals with Scotland and Northern Ireland.

At the end of last year and the beginning of this year, Brightsolid cancelled two online family history magazines that it had been publishing for three years. Discover my Past Scotland ran for 39 issues, whilst its younger sibling, Discover my Past England, ran for 24 editions.

With the exception of the first two issues of the Scottish title, I had the pleasure to write the monthly news and book reviews columns for both titles for the duration of their run, and contributed many articles on all sorts of subjects, as did other genies based in both countries, working to editor Hilary Bowman.

The titles have both been cancelled, but the magazines themselves can still be purchased online at www.discovermypast.co.uk. Although the site is apparently offering Discover my Past England at "a special rate" of £2.50 per issue - so special that it was actually sold at that exact rate when it was in production! - there is a more genuine offer for back issues of Discover my Past Scotland, in that you can now download all 39 issues in PDF format for a fee of just £15 in total (instead of the £97.50 that the 39 issues previously cost at £2.50 each).

Those of us who worked on the title - both titles - were very proud of what we achieved, and there's some great stuff in each edition. Discover my Past Scotland was the first UK based online genealogy magazine, perhaps just a little too ahead of its time when launched at a time when tablet computers had yet to catch on in Britain. Its articles still stand up to this day, so if you fancy a wee treat, Scotland's only ever monthly genealogy magazine awaits in a wee bundle for just a few quid!

Wednesday, 24 October 2012

Please note that on Wednesday 7th November 2012, Surrey History Centre will be CLOSED until 12.00 noon. This closure is due to a staff meeting. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. Thank you.

The Family History Partnership is relaunching its website at www.familyhistorypartnership.co.uk and as a consequence the site is currently not offering details of titles available for sale. It should be up and running in a few days according to the new home page.

If you want to test it out when it is back up and running, my book Researching Scottish Family History should be available there for the bargain price of £7.95!

Spaces are still available for the third Unlock the Past (www.unlockthepast.com.au) History and Genealogy cruise which takes place next February 10th-19th 2013, sailing from Sydney - Noumea - Fiji - Sydney. If you're at a loose end early next year and haven't done a genealogy cruise before, I can vouch for their brilliance, having been on the last one! There are on board conference facilities, great destinations and lots of expertise - ah go on!

On Friday 9th November 2012 at 1pm, Ian Montgomery will be giving a talk in PRONI entitled “Buried at Canada Farm: tracing First World War soldiers”. The talk is open to everybody and takes as its starting point the Burial Return of five soldiers from 16th Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles (2nd County Down Volunteers) who were killed on 17 April 1918 and buried at Canada Farm Cemetery near Elzendammestraat in Belgium.

Those who attend the talk will be able to pick up hints on how to research and obtain more information on men who served in the First World War.

This is just a quick note to announce that I have submitted the text for my next book, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet, to publisher Pen and Sword. The book is a follow up to a previous work, Tracing Your Family History on the Internet, which dealt with family history resources for the UK, and should be out early next year at some stage, though the date has still to be confirmed.

Although the first book included some resources for Northern Ireland, the new book deals with the whole of Ireland, and has been a heck of a lot of fun to write. It includes many resources you may have never come across before, lots of useful tips, detailed explanations on many record types and much more. I've discovered a lot from writing it that I will be putting to use, and I hope it will help with your own research in due course!

As for my next projects - watch this space! 2013 is going to be just as busy...! :)

UPDATE: Spoke with publisher earlier - we're hoping to try to get the book available early next year, so we'll be making a big effort in the next few weeks to get it proofed, paginated etc - more news soon....!

Members of North West Kent Family History Society (www.nwkfhs.org.uk) will be at Bromley Central Library on Saturday 27th October to help at a family history drop in session. No need to book, turn up for free genealogical advice!

The TV series Find My Past is to return for a second run on Tuesday 30th October at 9pm on the Yesterday channel, available on Freeview channel 19, Sky 537 and Virgin Media 203. Five episodes will be shown prior to Christmas - these are Dambusters, Gunpowder Plot, Tutankhamun, Great Fire of London, and Christmas Truce - and five more in the new year. Chris Hollins continues to present.

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) may have just been sold for gazillions, but it's business as usual on the records front. Th site has just added Browse only copies of the New South Wales Police Gazette from 1854-1930, which may well be useful if your ancestors emigrated to Oz.

2014 will mark another Homecoming year for Scotland, but there is confusion over a possible clans Gathering happening as a part of it, as happened in 2009. An independent event seems to be off the cards, but now a plan B at Bannockburn seems to be in disarray also, according to a post by the Council of Scottish Clans and Associations, taking its lead from the Scotsman newspaper. For the post visit http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs130/1106025977727/archive/1111331457112.html

The winners of the English Heritage Angel Awards, founded last year by Andrew Lloyd Webber to celebrate the efforts of local people in rescuing their heritage, were announced at a gala ceremony in London’s West End today (Monday 22 October). The award scheme is run by English Heritage and inspired by its Heritage at Risk Register.

Andrew Lloyd Webber chaired the judging panel which comprised Simon Thurley, Chief Executive of English Heritage, author and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg, Charles Moore of the Telegraph, historian Bettany Hughes and the Bishop of London, the Right Revd Richard Chartres.

Andrew Lloyd Webber said: “I am delighted for all the winners of this year’s Angel Awards who were chosen from a very strong shortlist. I think it is hugely important to publicly recognise the efforts of those rescuing heritage sites in order to show our appreciation for their work and encourage even more people across the country to do the same.”

Dr Simon Thurley said: “Once again we have been dazzled by the energy, invention, commitment and public spiritedness of thousands of people determined to save their precious heritage. While the angel awards were presented to five people, we are all winners, as we can now enjoy the historic places they have saved for the future.”

Clare Balding said: “I’m thrilled to be presenting the Heritage Angels Awards once again. I was so impressed with last year’s entries and know from this year’s list how much hard work has continued to be invested in revitalising our country’s magical buildings. These awards reward those who have completed work and inspire those who have just begun.”

The Telegraph is the media partner for the English Heritage Angel Awards and films about all 16 of the shortlisted candidates, including the winners, can be seen on the English Heritage website www.english-heritage.org.uk/angelawards